With the start of flu season here, it’s time to start thinking about staying healthy. Nothing can ruin the holidays like a bad case of the flu. Memorial Hospital Medical Director Dr. Gary Winfield says the best thing you can do is get a flu shot. “The flu shot is our best weapon against the flu,” Dr. Winfield said. “It can prevent you from getting the flu, or if you do get it, it can make your symptoms less severe.”

Today marks the 36th Great American Smokeout, sponsored by the American Cancer Society. The Tobacco Free Jacksonville Coalition with the Duval County Health Department, the Florida Department of Health and Tobacco Free Florida are celebrating this event by encouraging Floridians to commit to being tobacco-free for 24 hours on Thursday.

If your children are overweight or obese, their risk of having high blood pressure is almost three times higher than children at normal weight, according to new research in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.

A study of 1,111 healthy Indiana school children over a period of 4.5 years revealed that when the children’s body mass index (BMI) reached or passed the 85th percentile — the beginning of the overweight category — the adiposity effect on blood pressure was more than four times that of normal weight children. Adiposity is fat under the skin and surrounding major organs.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday that it became aware of the problem when Ohio health authorities reported that a family in Butler County had become ill with E. coli. Ground beef in the family's home tested positive for the bacteria.

The products being recalled include Kroger-brand ground beef; Butcher's Brand beef and generic label beef, which were all produced Aug. 23.

The Kroger beef was distributed in Tennessee and Indiana; the Butcher's beef in North and South Carolina and the generic beef in Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.